<p>In the articles I have read, the student communicated to his mother that is was important to talk to his dad. The mother got in touch with the dad via e-mail, thus the phone call.</p>
<p>I agree with Marite & Duke. It’s hardly a situation where phones would be ringing off the hook. I understand how disruptive uncontrolled cell phone use would be in a classroom, but this was clearly not a kid abusing the phone or disrupting the class. If a kid is sneaking a phone to text friends, it’s certainly easy enough to confiscate the phone & check the usage history. If a kid is accused of uising a phone against policy, he could show the teacher his caller id record to prove it was an overseas call from a parent in the military & be cleared of any disciplinary action. Certainly this isn’t too much to expect. I also think most active military men & women are much too busy to be constantly ringing up their kids in the classroom! It’s a precious & rare connection that every school should facilitate.</p>
<p>This is way off, but this reminds me of a Ray Bradbury science fiction short story, “All Summer in a Day”, where a little girl was left in a closet the one day in years that the sun would come out. Could you imagine if that boy did not take that call and (God forbid) did not get another chance?</p>
<p>Yes, Rachacha, my mind immediately jumped to that horrible possibility as well. But even the need to maintain a connection between the boy & his dad serving overseas is enough of a reason to make a cell phone exception here.</p>
<p>when you have parents deployed over and over and over again, this is going to become more of an issue, as it should</p>
<p>I wish classes were disrupted, ALOT, because then it becomes real that these kids are missing their parents for months and months at a time, year after year</p>
<p>So some teacher has to worry about a kid missing some class time or disruption to the class, these familes are disrupted day after day</p>